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10 movies to catch before the end of 2017

Nov. 21, 2017 5:11pm

The holiday season is a wonderful time to get together with family... or run and hide in a dark movie theater so you can avoid them. Whatever the case may be, here are 10 movies you might be interested in seeing between now and the new year.

Nov. 22

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure: Anyone could see that the studio wasn’t really going to let this franchise go, no matter how hard they sang that song. Olaf, who likes warm hugs, gets the short-film treatment after stealing hearts in runaway hit Frozen. He’s out to save Christmas for Anna and Elsa in this short film that will play before Coco. -- Dawn M. Burkes

The Man Who Invented Christmas: No, this movie isn’t about Jesus or the writers of the Gospels -- it’s about Charles Dickens. Sure, the title might exaggerate a bit, but watching Dan Stevens portray the man who wrote A Christmas Carol might make for a great start to the holiday season. -- Britton Peele

Dec. 1

Love Beats Rhymes: Azealia Banks, who just apologized to Lil Kim for a 2012 diss, courts even more goodwill as she stars in this film as a young rapper trying to make it in music. Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA is the director of this musical that also stars Jill Scott as a poetry professor, Common as a mentor and Lorraine Toussaint as her mother. With a cast full of names like this, Love Beats Rhymes has got to be good. -- D.M.B.

Dec. 8

I, Tonya: Margot Robbie (Suicide Squad) stars as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding, who shot to fame as an athletic skater who did what no other American woman could do in competition. But she did not have it easy, even before she shot to infamy when she was bounced out of competitive figure skating after an attack on Olympic rival Nancy Kerrigan was linked to her. Allison Janney plays the hard-scrabble skater’s mother and Sebastian Stan plays her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly in the film directed by Craig Gillespie. -- D.M.B.

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water: Beloved director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim) has already received high acclaim for this fantasy romance between a mute woman and an amphibious humanoid that is being treated as a science experiment. -- B.P.

Dec. 15

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Luke Skywalker finally has lines in Episode VIII of the epic Star Wars saga. Whether or not he’s still entirely with the light side of The Force remains to be seen, but we’re just as interested in catching up with Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren and other new characters that we got to meet in 2015’s The Force Awakens. -- B.P.

Dec. 20

The Greatest Showman: The Ringling Bros. circus may have come to a close earlier this year, but this new biographical musical (starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum) will take you back to the origins of "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart (Central Intelligence) ride again. This time, they bring Jack Black along for a remake of the Robin Williams movie about a board game gone wild. This time, it’s an old video game that becomes all too real for its players as they’re sucked into one death trap after another. -- D.M.B.

Dec. 22

Pitch Perfect 3: The a capella singing group won the world championship in the last installment of this franchise. Now what? Well, this was supposed to be the ever after and it’s not so happily. But all it takes is an overseas tour to come to the Bellas’ rescue. Shenanigans of the singing kind ensue. -- D.M.B.

Downsizing: As a solution for overpopulation, scientists have decided to, uh, shrink people down so that they’re five inches tall? OK, sure. Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig and Christoph Waltz star in this whimsical, smaller-than-life comedy-drama. -- B.P.